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Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Souvenir viewbook sold at initial screenings of the film in 1968
When Stanley Kubrick's epic science fiction film was premiered in 1968, the only theater equipped with Cinerama
technology was in Syracuse, New York, about an hour away from Westmoreland where I lived. After a futile attempt
to explain to my parents why I needed to see the film in Cinerama, I simply negotiated a deal of some kind and they
agreed to drive me there for an afternoon screening while they went shopping. Probably something to do with
school grades, room cleaning, or yardwork, I forget the details.
The Eckel Theater in downtown Syracuse, NY 1950s - demolished in the 1970s
Cinerama was film projection technology that created a huge image on a curved screen that gave the effect of filling the viewer's complete field of vision (especially when sitting closer to the screen) resulting in an experience that could be either breathtaking or unsettling or both. The first films made in the process made a concerted effort to toy with the audiences' equilibrium by shooting sequences on a rollercoaster, on a rocking boat, or in fast-moving vehicles, all of which thrilled moviegoers.
Credits page from souvenir viewbook
Cinerama required elaborate and expensive installations in the theaters, that limited the number of locations and the number of films made in the process. Eventually, a revised (and cheaper) system was invented that utilized the curved screen but reduced the associated technology. 2001 was photographed and presented in this revised format, that meant it could be screened in Cinerama and in regular theaters as well. Another important aspect of the Cinerama system was a very high quality sound system engineered to deliver an
almost overwhelming audio experience. More on that later.
Viewbook image of Keir Dullea as Astronaut Dave Bowman checking a communications module
The script for the film was written by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and director/producer Stanley Kubrick and both authors repeatedly stated that they didn't want the audience to leave the theater without having a multitude of questions and equal amounts of awe and bewilderment. No easy answers were given about what was happening in the film and why. The filmmakers wanted the audience to think about what they had seen and what it meant to them personally. The film was controversial in that regard, as audiences split on whether or not the film provoked meaningful discussion or provided technically proficient boredom.
Kubrick, cast, and crew on the spaceship Discovery set
Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick on Pan Am space shuttle set
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards winning for Best Visual Effects (inexplicably the only Oscar that Stanley Kubrick would ever receive), and was a critical and modest financial success. Today the film is considered a masterpiece and is often included on lists of the greatest films ever made.
Sitting in the dark confines of the Eckel Theater and absorbing the incredible imagery of the film accompanied by a music and sound design that could only be described as over-powering, 2001: A Space Odyssey was a near-religious experience for me and one I will never forget. Particularly the ending of the film.
Whatever the "StarChild" represents, and there are many interpretations, the beautiful visual effects and the thundering music of Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss combined to create a sense of absolute awe in me about the universe and the infinite, a thousand times more than any catechism class or holier-than-thou sermon might. The ultimate stroke of genius on Kubrick's part was to have his last image in the film be this...
...the looming figure of a strange new lifeform staring directly at me from the Cinerama screen challenging me to think about science, history, culture, nature, the future, and what role I might play in this universe.
If you've never seen 2001 on a large screen with stereophonic sound, you've never seen it. You've seen what is called a palimpsest of the film, a work that has a basis in a previous work but has overwritten it and diminished it. No tv screen can do it justice, no multiplex theater can contain it, even IMAX can't do the job due to its incompatibility with the film's original photographic ratio. Only in a place like the Eckel Theater can you get the full effect of the film, and there aren't many of those still in existence. That's a shame.
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